At The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, A Book Review

 

At The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, A Novel, by Tara Ison is a most amazing book. It's of the Holocaust genre and also Coming of Age, but at least in my reading experience, it's like no other. 

Ison writes about a wealthy preteen Jewish girl from Paris who is brought to live with a poor rural Catholic family. Danielle must do her best to hide her true identity and live as Marie-Jeanne, orphaned niece of Berthe on a small farm and even milk the cow every morning. Danielle's red hair definitely helps mask her Jewish identity. With them are Berthe's husband Claude and their son Luc, who makes Danielle feel rather uncomfortable.

We follow two parallel transitions, one the growth of Nazi dominance in a quiet farming town near Limoges in Vichy France and second, Danielle's growing comfort and identification in her new identity as Catholic Marie-Jeanne. She's into her teens by the time the story ends.

The various characters are amazingly well-drawn/developed, and it's nothing is very predictable. The more I think about it, the harder it is to decided on the hero of the story. It's very complex and has some surprising twists.

I highly recommend At The Hour Between Dog and Wolf. The characters find themselves in situations in which it's hard to distinguish between a dog and a wolf, as the title states. It's an excellent book for discussion in a Book Club or even in a classroom of older adolescents. 

Product details 

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ig Publishing (February 21, 2023) 

Language ‏ : ‎ English 

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 286 pages 

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1632461455 

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1632461452 

Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces 

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 8 inches

Book Club Update, Monthly Genres, Successful

Last night was the monthly meeting of our Book Club, which we also turned into a Surprise Belated Birthday Party for the member who started this wonderful group.

I'm not quite sure how long we've been following this program. After a very rocky start, we added a potluck dinner to the evening, which seems to be the magic ingredient, at least for us. In the beginning we got together around 8:30pm, which meant that some members hadn't quite had dinner and were hungry, while others were tired and ready for bed.  As a creative solution we decided to meet earlier and eat dinner together before getting to the business of books. Potluck dinner in different homes made everyone happy, except for the hostess's husband, but later on we found a solution to that, too.

Another problem was the logistics of getting enough copies of the chosen book...

After the forced COVID break, which we unsuccessfully tried to compensate for via zoom, we changed the program even further. Instead of everyone reading the same book, we choose a genre/author and give each other the freedom for what we'll call individuality. One of the members told me that she had been a member of conventional book clubs and found it boring, listening to repetitive opinions from members at each meeting.

Last week the genre was "animals," which, when suggested, elicited a groan from me. I don't like animals; reading about animal lovers/stories isn't my thing. The only "animal book" I've ever enjoyed was Seabiscuit, because it's more about the people, but I couldn't find my copy.  Instead I saw the movie on DVD, but then I realized that the title of the book I had just read is At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf which does mention two animals. The title is a metaphor, and the book is fantastic. It belongs in the genre of Holocaust (which we have done) and coming of age. So, I decided to present it and recommend it highly. I still have to review it, but I'll say right here that it's definitely a book that can be the subject for a conventional book club that chooses one book to discuss. It's a novel by Tara Ison, and if you're looking for a great book, it has my vote. I hope to get the review done before Passover, if not...

True, I Haven't Been Posting Much

Have you noticed that I haven't posted much? It's ironic that until a couple of years ago I posted daily on both my blogs. Now I can skip a week or two and not even realize it.

What have I been doing?

I've been crocheting as much as I can. I've discovered something fantastic. People will buy my crocheted hats when I offer to donate the money to a charity, tzedakah. I'm going to try that with some of the bags I've crocheted.

I've also crocheted a few "bowls" to use for mishloach manot for Purim. On the Purim holiday we give food gifts, so my bags and bowls are very useful. I've been packing them in my crafts for the past few years.

A friend had suggested hats for tzedakah, and that's another reason I crochet a lot. I've bought some yarn for winter hats on sale recently. You can see me in the picture below wearing one of the hats. I bought more of the same yarn, because a friend wants one just like it.

To be honest I've found it easier to find topics for Shiloh Musings. That's because the politics here is so upsetting, I've had to write about it. Not that post all that frequently there either.

Don't get me wrong. I do stay busy besides crocheting and Facebook etc. I study Tanach/Bible and do mosaics once a week in the program here for senior citizens. 

My Tanach/Bible studies are online, Google Meet and also in Jerusalem. I've been in a study group for about ten years. We used to meet once a week, and now, ever since the COVID lockdown we've been meeting almost every day, though not in person. We used to use Zoom, but now it's Google Meet. I'm also in a monthly Book Club. And I take a short walk at least once a day.

What keeps you busy? Have you missed my blog posts?

Genre Focused Book Club

 A few months ago, as I've already posted, our Book Club came  back to life in a new format. Each monthly meeting is a different genre or author instead of struggling with the logistics of everyone reading, and first finding in one form or another, the same book. 

We all read something by Herman Wouk, then children/youth classics, inspiring books, inspiring people/biographies/memoirs and most recently detective books.

Genre focused meetings are lots of fun and allow us book-lovers to really enjoy and share our love of literature. Another change is that we're taking turns as facilitators. Quite often the facilitator is the member who suggested the genre.

Our detective mysteries ranged from Agatha Christie to Michael Connelly, which really are very different. It's always interesting to see which books have been chosen. I spoke about Michael Connelly, and I was rather shocked to discover that not all of my friends were familiar with any of his many, many series of books and characters.

A few years ago we added a potluck dinner to the meeting's festivities, and now that we're vaccinated it has fully resumed. The only change is NO FINGER FOOD or DOUBLE-DIPPING. 

If you're part of a book club, please tell me about it in the comments, thanks. And if you'd like more information on how we run our club, please fell free to ask.

A New Format For Our Book Club

Last night we had another meeting of the Book Club, with a tasty, filling pot luck dinner. Dessert was scones with all the trimmings. So obviously we would have considered the evening a great success even if the discussion part had been a bust.

This meeting was the most ambitious so far of our new framework. We had been given (actually I think it was my idea) a rather open assignment. Read any book written by Herman Wouk, and as the date of the meeting got closer, I, as facilitator, loosened the requirement a bit. I told the participants that they could even watch one of his books as a movie or see one of the tv shows he had  written or was based on a book of his.

Our custom is to eat first and then talk books. Who can really focus on books when sitting around a table heaped with great food?

As we polished off the scones, we began the meeting. If I remember correctly, first I gave a summary of Wouk's life and discussed his book that I had read, This Is My God, which is a very personal book. Wouk was an Orthodox Jew in a time when it seemed that Jewish Orthodoxy was a dying breed. So we also discussed the state of American Jewry in the mid-twentieth century, which shaped Wouk.

Then I asked everyone to state the book they had read and I wrote it all down. There was only one overlap; two read the Caine Mutiny.  Each member described her book, and what she thought of it. The two who had read Caine Mutiny had a mini-panel discussion. Then we talked about Wouk and what we had learned together. 

We all agreed that this new format is working for us. It's such a relief not to have to search for the same book and/or rush reading so it could be passed on to other members. Our next meeting with deal with a time in history, and we'll all have to find suitable books in the genre.

If you use any of our ideas or are a member of a book club, please let me know in the comments. Thanks

Back To "Pot Luck Dinner" Book Club, Thank Gd

 Last night I hosted our local Book Club.

The meeting was our second post-corona get-together, but the first time we got down to the business of literary book discussions. A couple of weeks earlier we just "partied," ate and hashed out how to best conduct meetings. 

Pre-corona our set meeting meant a book that all of were supposed to have read, usually facilitated by the same member. Some months it worked better than others. Buying, borrowing and sharing books can get complicated, even though a few members read most of their books on kindle. As we talked and ate, we realized that maybe we should change our meeting structure. On occasion we may manage to read the same book, but no longer always.

Our new plan is to choose monthly genres or authors. Each month a different member facilitates and decides on details. 

The member who facilitated last night wanted to read a couple of children's classics, Pollyanna and Anne of Green Gables. I had never read either of them before, not even as a child. I borrowed Pollyanna from her. I surprised myself by enjoying it. There was a lively discussion about the books. Not everyone read both, and a couple didn't read either one. We agreed that even though we liked the books, we couldn't see our grandchildren reading them. The Harry Potter generation can't relate to the low-tech lives and innocence of Anne and Pollyanna.

Next month's book is The Brigade : An Epic Story of Vengeance, Salvation, and WWII by Howard Blum. If I don't get a copy of the book, I'll try to research the history of the time.

I must admit that in the early days of our book club, we didn't have the pot luck dinner, and the club wasn't all that successful. Once we added the meal at an earlier hour and extra socializing, it really improved our meetings and attendance. I can't remember how many years our book club has been going on. Members are from Shiloh and nearby communities, and we're grandmothers and great-grandmothers, too.

There are book clubs all over the world which follow various "programs." We've even traded books with a few here in Israel. Not only do I enjoy the socializing and literary talk, but it has been good for me to stretch my reading to books I never would have touched if they hadn't been on our "list." What are your experiences with book clubs?

"Little Women," The New Movie Deserved More Than One Oscar

For the month of March, just a coincidence, my local Shiloh book club has decided on the classic Little Women. This past Tuesday we rushed to see the new movie version in Cinema City, Jerusalem, taking advantage of the special NS10 senior discount ticket. I had started this post a few days ago, before the Academy Awards. My friends and I were totally blown away from the movie. It was amazing, especially the way Greta Gerwig adapted Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women to the screen. It's beyond my comprehension how she didn't get an Oscar for that category. Just the Costumes won the coveted prize.

I've been rereading Little Women, after a break of over half a century. Since it's a very old classic, you can get it for free e-reading. To be honest you don't need a special e-reader/kindle. I use my phone and don't even need an app.

Back to the movie Little Women. It mixes times and sequences, which may be confusing, but the truth is that it makes sense. Jo is the main character, and she thinks a lot. Her thoughts and memories of the past are an important part of the movie. Actually, that whole package is the movie.

There's a color-schemed clue to put you on track for the era, past versus present. Jo's, or is it Alcott's, memories are bathed in sepia, while the movie's "now" is brighter and bluish.

All the aesthetics were stunningly perfect, yes, the costumes, too, of course. We were spellbound. On the whole the acting was perfect, but although Amy (Florence Pugh) could almost pull off looking younger than her sisters, her voice jarred. She has a mature woman's voice which was rather distracting when she was supposed to be young. Also, Timothée Chalamet, playing Laurie, wasn't consistent. Granted it's harder for a man to simultaneously play a teen and a grown man convincingly, but Chalamet, even at his best, was unconvincing.

With those exceptions, every other actor in main and minor roles was excellent and totally convincing. Little Women is definitely worth seeing. This version is like no other before it. I'd recommend reading the book beforehand if you can. Otherwise be prepared for a unique journey. Get into the head of the young writer, Jo, obviously based on Alcott herself. Everyone in the audience seemed mesmerized. And if you're in a book club, like I am, choose the book and see the movie together. The adaptation is totally brilliant.

Cinema City, Jerusalem

What are You Reading?

Besides the books for my local book club, A Man Called Ove is for the next meeting & I've already read it, I love reading Michael Connelly and Daniel Silva books.

Here's the one I'm reading now:

What are you reading?

Salad Could be a Meal

This salad could be a complete meal, if you're trying to cut down on carbohydrates. The seeds have protein. It can also be a side dish, served with any sort of meal.

The ingredients:
shredded raw beet
pumpkin seeds
fresh parsley
mushrooms
cucumber
tomato

The dressing:
olive oil
freshly squeezed lemon juice

This colorful and tasty salad was my contribution to our book club's pot luck dinner meeting. This month we read Rebecca. I find that the best way to make sure that there's something low carb at the meal is to bring it myself.

Book Club, Awful Book But Great Cake and Meeting

The other night Book Bliss, our Shiloh Bloc book club had a meeting. For the very first time in the history of our book club, not a single solitary one of us had managed to read the entire book. I managed to get half-way though, which may have been the record. It was unanimously considered the worst book ever. We're all "clean-speaking" ladies and had trouble finding words in our pristine lady-like vocabularies to accurately describe Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow.

We just couldn't figure out the rationale for its winning of the Pulitzer Prize. You can call it the Barack Hussein Obama Nobel Peace Prize of Literature.

Even though the book was awful, it did inspire a fantastic discussion about what good literature really is and the difference in how men and women think. From now on we won't be choosing books according to prizes.

The awful book didn't ruin our meeting. We hold our meetings over potluck dinners, and we try to gear the menus to the books. But this time we refused to let the book spoil our appetites. We had a big fresh salad, salmon, deviled eggs, a cauliflower kugel, cheeses and pasta salads. I hope I didn't leave anything out. The best part was the dessert, though a few members had to leave before it was served.

Considering how few of us remained when the cake was finally served, we ate an awful lot of it.

Bli neder, no promises, I'll try to get the recipe. It was absolutely irresistible!

Book Club, "City Boy"

Homemade pickles and bagels  

After a much too long summer hiatus, the local Shiloh Bloq "Book Bliss" Book Club met at my house last night. We had read City Boy by Herman Wouk quite a while ago, but due to the usual events and personal plans of summer and then Jewish Holiday seasons, it took us much too long to set a date to meet.

We always have a "potluck" dinner as part of the meeting. This time, besides the homemade pickles and bagels show above, we ate orange soup, salad, cheeses, flavored butters and totally irresistible eclairs. There was also some fantastic wine for the drinkers among us.

I feel extremely blessed to live near such a wonderful group of women. The conversation and social aspect of the group rivals the intellectual stimulation of the book discussion. Adding an early dinner to our meetings has enriched them enormously.  Some of us read the books from paper, while others use their kindles or audio versions. And sometimes for various reasons, we just can't get to or through the entire book, so cheat and google it.

Our next book is Humboldt's Gift. I must get a copy somehow.

Faux Chinese But Really Tasty Chinese Vegetables

In the culinary world of my childhood, "Chinese food" as we knew it wasn't very Chinese. And so, my concept of Chinese cooking is rather faux, very "Jewish" 1950's, though very tasty.

By the time we sat down, there was double the food on the table.

For my Book Club, we decided to go Chinese this week, since we read, or more accurately for most if not all of us, reread The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

I made vegetables. You can use any and not stick to what I cooked. Actually only now that I'm writing the recipe I remembered that I had planned on using some fresh ginger, too. Here's what I cooked:

• onion
• garlic
• carrot
• peppers
• squash
• mushroom
• kohlrabi
• celery

As you can see, I cut them all into strips of sorts and put it all in a big pot, added a bit of oil, covered and let it cook a bit, not too much. Then I added some "soy"or Tamari sauce, sprinkled some sesame seeds and turned off the heat.

A culinary purist would find it awfully fake, but for me it's "Chinese enough" and absolutely delicious. Give it a try.




PS we had a wonderful time at the Book Club meeting. We got a lot out of the discussion and the book.

And keeping with the Chinese theme we had "fortunes" sans cookies, since most of us are trying to keep weight off.

"Book Bliss," Shiloh Book Club, Rereading Old Favorites and More

I read paper books, though others read ebooks
or listen to recordings.

Here in Shiloh we have a fantastic book club, started by a neighbor who, instead of just complaining about the lack of an English language book club, organized one herself.

That's the best way to deal with the "imperfect" life most of us lead. In all honesty, we do all have our complaints, and complaining doesn't get us very far. It generally makes us unbearable, and then people just don't want to be around us. 

Book Bliss began pretty small, when a friend took the initiative and made a few calls, ordered some books and invited us over. Since then, it has grown and even has participants who don't live in Shiloh. And of course we take turns hosting and leading the meetings. We also changed the timing, making it a potluck dinner, which is great fun and means that we start and finish at reasonable times.

We've read all sorts of books so far. Some were books I had heard of but never read. There have also been books I never heard of at all, and others I had read over half a century ago, like The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, which I'm reading right now. The previous selection was To Kill a Mockingbird, which we pretty much all agreed was better than we had remembered. I hosted and ran the meeting for Fahrenheit 451, which I had heard about but never read until needed for the club.

In theory the meetings are supposed to be once a month, but they end up more like every six weeks or so. Not all of the participants are native English speakers, but all of us enjoy reading English, no matter what our linguistic backgrounds. And we're also all different ages, educational backgrounds and professions. That also makes the meetings a lot of fun and intellectually stimulating.

The truth is that there have been books many of us didn't enjoy reading, and we have no compunctions about saying why at meetings. That's the fun of doing this as adults and not students. Nobody takes offense, there are no grades and many of us have found ourselves quickly googling the book, since we hadn't managed to finish reading it before the meeting.

Life in Shiloh is getting better all the time, bli eyin haraa...

A Day Home

lovely swimming pool water, Shiloh

Today I'm home in Shiloh. OK, it's not a quiet day. We're having most of the grandkids over. We'll go to the pool. Females in the morning and males in the afternoon.

And there are activities for kids that we can go to, also. But I wonder if we'll be able to drag them away from the tv/dvd and their books.

At night there's a meeting of the local book club. I haven't finished reading the book, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, but I've been enjoying it and promised the organizer I'd make an effort to come.

Yes, one doesn't have to leave home to be busy.